Welcome to MuonionalustaMeteorites.com!

The number one site about Muonionalusta meteorites.

News:

-The new
swedish
meteorite
forum,
see link to
the left!

-Checkout
pictures
from the
summer
excavation
of the +1
ton
meteorite!

Muonionalusta is located north of the artic circle in the northern part of Sweden and
the first meteorite was found in 1906.

The meteorite that is an iron has been classified as a fine octahedrite classe IVA and
is considered to have a spectacular etch pattern. You can read more about the
meteorites minerals, chemistry and structure under the "Chemistry and structure"
tab.

We that run this page are Thomas Österberg and Daniel Svensson. We have been
collecting minerals for many years both in Sweden and abroad, but the last years we
have mainly been searching for meteorites in the Muonionalusta area.

When we started this project (and even today) there were very few pictures on the
internet and quite little information about meteorite hunting in the Muonionalusta
area. Some etched slides on ebay were present but not much more.

This is an attempt to change that, atleast a little.

Please enjoy the pictures!

Please notice that in Sweden you must apply for a license for using a metal detector!
You must also have the permission from the land owner if you wish to collect
meteorites.
If you wish to go hunting, please be a responsible collector and don´t destroy or
leave any traces after you!

The story of discovery of the

Muonionalusta meteorite -
some quoting from Wickmann
(1997)

" In 1906 two children were tending

cattle near the village of Kitkiöjärvi in
northermost Sweden.

While kicking at stones lying on the

ground, one child suddenly struck an
exceptionally heavy and rusty object,
which they took home to the village.

It was later identified as an iron

meteorite and was described by
Högbom (1910) under the name
Muonionalusta. It was studied much
later by Malmqvist (1948). "

In the picture: the discoverer of See fullsize picture of Viktor Mattila and his sister Amalia
Muonionalusta meteorite, Viktor Mattila
Mattila, at the place of discovery,
photo taken 1956 (almost 50 years
after the discovery). (Picture from
Wickman 1964)

"In 1946, a second meteorite was found, in Kitkiöjoki, where the foundations of a house were being excavated. From
these two iron meteorites and the paucity of the population, Wickman concluded that a meteorite crater must exist in
the area, and visited the general area in 1956, hoping to locate the crater. Regrettably, his hopes were in vain but he
did discover that there was an oral tradition in Kitkiöjärvi regarding another iron meteorites as a result of the first
recovered meteorite in 1906. According to the man who told the story to hid children, he had found it in the village
probably in the 1870s, though it was later discarded.
Subsequently Wickman (1956) wrote a pamphlet, which was printed and distributed to every household in the area to
make known the possibility of finding meteorites. Eventually, in 1963, a third iron meteorite was discovered, this
time during the building of a logging track not very far from Kitkiöjoki. All the meteorites so far found are described
by Wickman (1963, 1964) and by Buchwald (1975).
The 6.20 kg "Muonionalusta III" meteorite found in 1963
Chang & Wänke (1969) established the terrestrial age (> 800.000 years) of one of the meteorites and some of its
consequences are discussed by Wickman (1970). As Sweden, and especially its northern parts, has been repeatedly
glaciated during the last one million years it became evident that the meteorites must have undergone a complex
glacial transport history before their discovery. For this reason Wickman encouraged Lagerbäck, who has experience
of the glacial geology of the region, to take an interest in the meteorites and their terrestrial history.
Inspired by the prospect of discovering an impact crater, potentially containing a Quarternary stratigraphy dating
back several hundreds of thousands of years, Lagerbäck visited the area in 1989. Aerial photographs covering the
area were studied and the geological conditions at the find sites, the regolith stratigraphy included, were examined.
However, no obvius crater could be identified, though an interesting piece of information was obtained from people
occupied with road work between Kitkiöjoki and Kitkiöjärvi. They told how the previous year a stone crusher,
working in a lonely area NW of Muodoslompolo, became jammed by a piece of "soft iron". Eventually this trail
revealed that two pieces of this "iron" had been encountered and fortunately one had been secured before it could
pass through the crusher."
Some meteorites from the area:
Individual meteorite, "the dog head", 12 kg.

The crystal planes can be seen at some places where the metal has been exposed. Look also from the side at the
triangularshape of the meteorite, that is parallell with corresponding Widmanstätten figures / crystal planes inside
(900 g).
"Crystallised extraterrestrial iron" A beautiful 6 kg piece found in 2005. The corrosion have removed all traces of
regmaglypts and created a "3D etch" showing widmanstatten in real space.
A beautiful impressive 80 kg piece with some nice regmaglyptic shapes. Found in 2004. If you compare with the
piece above you realise that this piece is not very corroded.
Some cut and etched meteorites:
Troilite inclusion, very nice!
End piece measuring 110 x 55 mm.

Some meteorite art!

A knife with a nice deep etch.

Excavation summer of 2008 - 1.2 ton meteorite find !
Thomas with friends has started to celebrate the sucessfull excavation. This photo was taken by Andreas Forsberg
(C).
An amazingly big piece!

Pictures from the hunting in the Muonionalusta area:

Old watermill in the vicinity of Vittangi.
After alot of searching finally we found our first specimen of the year - we where very happy!
Very very happy!
After some cleaning - a super nice 18 kg specimen!

Typical look of with water cleaned but else untreated meteorite. Some people might prefer the rusty look rather than
the more metallic
look, but from our experience to avoid further deterioration one must carefully remove the rust physically and
apply some protecting oil.
Thomas Österberg digging for a meteorite.
Daniel Svensson digging for another meteorite.
The meteorite can be seen at the end of the hammer.

After plenty of work it finally came up to the surface!

After the meteorite has been taken up the hole must be filled and restored.
Scenery at the Muonio river.

Gravel - pit about 10 km NV of Muonionalusta, where a Muonionalusta meteorite was found during processing of
gravel in 1994.

Midnight sun over the Muoni river